“I believe in the power of religions. I am convinced that the church can play a great role in achieving peace,” the Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan stated in his speech at the International Religious Freedom and Peace conference in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin on September 9.
In his speech, Arman Tatoyan highlighted the role of the National Church in the protection of human rights. Another part of the ombudsman’s speech referred to ethnic and religious intolerance. In this context, he spoke about the war unleashed by Azerbaijan and Turkey against Armenia in 2020. Based on the results of the ombudsman’s fact-finding mission, Arman Tatoyan stated that ethnic and religious intolerance was at the root of Azerbaijan’s intolerant behavior during the 44-day war in 2020. According to the Human Rights Defender, research shows that Armenophobia at the state level in Azerbaijan also targets religious identity.
The statements of Azerbaijani politicians clearly show that the culture of hatred in that country has an ethnic component. The ombudsman’s office has 300 videos and pictures showing Azerbaijan’s attitude towards the Armenian people, Armenian soldiers, and Armenian cultural values. “We have also reported cases of torture, such as beheadings, which were carried out with particular cynicism. Armenian cultural and religious institutions were targeted. More than 1,400 churches, khachkars and other elements of the Armenian cultural heritage came under Azerbaijani control. In October, the church of St. Ghazanchetsots was targeted and the dome was removed. The Kanach Zham and Mekhakavan churches were demolished, as well as the Yeghishe Armenian Church in Mataghis, which was built in the 19th century.”
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Arman Tatoyan brought examples from the cases of torture of Armenian prisoners of war in Azerbaijan. Some prisoners of war were allowed to take a bath and taken to Baku to be shown to journalists. In another case, an elderly man living in a village in Artsakh was humiliated just because he was Armenian or Christian. The Human Rights Defender states that Azerbaijan’s actions are a policy of genocidal and ethnic cleansing, which is a threat not only to the physical security of Armenians, but also to the establishment of regional peace.
Baroness Caroline Cox, who was taking part in the conference, considers the main task to be the end of Azerbaijan’s impunity and the return of Armenian prisoners of war, which has not been achieved yet. Representatives of the International Council of Churches, the US National Council of Churches, the Presidency of the Conference of European Churches, representatives of the Patriarchates of Moscow and Alexandria, the delegation of the Orthodox Diocese of London, Syria, Greece, the representative of the Church of England, and the leader of the Assyrian Church in Armenia gave speeches at the conference.
In their welcoming speech, they expressed support for the Armenian people and the Armenian Church, and condemned the steps taken to destroy the cultural heritage. The representative of Pope Francis who read the Pope’s message said that Pope Francis had decided to open a church in Yerevan in confirmation of his words of support and assistance.
Nelly Grigoryan
